Native American remains will be moved to Hershey

Wednesday, January 20, 1999

Native American remains will be moved to Hershey

REMAINS: Juaneno Tribe will reclaim ancestors now interred in
Haines

By Cathy Collins

Daily Bruin Contributor

Members of the Juaneno Tribe of Mission Indians will be on
campus this week to move ancestral remains from the Fowler Museum
of Cultural History archives in the basement of Haines Hall to
Hershey Hall.

The move comes as part of the recent closing of Haines for
seismic renovation.

The Fowler archiOverves contain fragments of at least 2,000
people. Among these remains are the bodies of 11 Juaneno Mission
Indians, a tribe based in what is now Orange County.

When Native American students at UCLA learned of the move, they
contacted tribes with ancestors in the collection. Of many tribes
contacted, the Juaneno was the only one that responded, according
to Diana Wilson, an assistant ethnographer.

The bodies, which dated from 800 to 1100 AD, were accidentally
unearthed from an ancient burial site in Mission Viejo during the
construction of a road. The items were then given to UCLA,
according to Wilson.

According to the Native American Grave Protection and
Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA), tribes must be granted control
over any of their ancestral remains.

However, the Juaneno band of Mission Indians has not been
recognized by the federal government as a native people.

"We are in a critical position because although the state
recognizes us, until the federal government recognizes us, we
cannot get our ancestors back under NAGPRA. These are obviously
ancestors of ours," said Anthony Rivera, the archaeological
chairman of the Juaneno tribal council.

Tribe members will be participating in the move with singing and
prayer, although there will be no ceremonies, Rivera said.

"There will be no ceremonies to honor what’s going on," he said.
"We’ll always honor our ancestors, wherever they are, but we will
not sanction what’s going on."

Rivera added that most tribe members were not aware of their
ancestral remains in Haines until they were contacted about the
move and that the tribe hopes to retrieve the remains from Fowler’s
collection at some point.

Wendy Giddens Teeter, Fowler’s curator of archaeology, hopes
that the construction will improve the archive space in Haines.
While located in the basement of Haines, the archives suffered from
periodic flooding from burst drainage pipes in the ceiling.

"Haines dates from at least the ’20s. It was designed to be an
archeological space," Teeter said.

In Haines, the remains were kept in a basement, but in Hershey,
they will be kept in what was formerly a kitchen with windows.

The university has taken steps to provide for the safety of the
remains by adding locks and treating the windows for protection
from ultraviolet rays.

"We’ve basically made it like a fortress," Teeter said, although
she added the presence of windows was a security problem not
present in the enclosed basement of Haines.

The moving process began in January 1998 and was scheduled to be
finished by last October. Due to delays in constructing the space
in Hershey, the final move will take place some time in the next
few weeks, according to Teeter.

The archives, which also contain ancient artifacts from
California, Mexico and the American southwest, have not been moved
since the 1950s, when they were originally placed in Haines. The
fragile nature of many objects raised concern about the move.

"The material is extremely fragile, so we’ve had to be very
careful so as not to lose any information," Teeter said. "People
come from all over the world to do research on this
collection."

She added that the archives will probably be returned to Haines
after the completion of construction in two years.

But members of the Juaneno tribe believe that UCLA’s possession
of Native American remains is wrong.

"Basically, they’re being held hostage there," Rivera said. "How
would you like it if one of your ancestors was dug up, examined and
kept in a box?"

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